St Andrews and St Stephen NB

St Andrews is a picturesque little town.  We walked the main street and then the wharf.  The tide was going out at the time.  Al had met a man who owned one of the restaurants there, The Gables.  So we went there.

https://www.facebook.com/The-Gables-Restaurant-165474053509799/

Ted Michener and his wife own the restaurant.  The once lived in Ontario.  Ted is an Artist and also sells his paintings.

They have really good food.  The patio overlooks the Bay of Fundy!  If you are in St Andrews we recommend this place!

After lunch, we drove on the ocean floor to see the Van Dorne 'summer' home on Ministers Island.  The only Island you can drive to without using a bridge.  William Van Dorne was from Illinois but worked his way up to President of the CN Pacific Railway.  This house on the island has 17 bedrooms and they are massive.  The Province of New Brunswick know owns the home and other buildings on it and operate it as a museum.

After we toured here, we made out way to St. Stephen to meet with a couple we met on a cruise in 2012.  Chris and Bill Hayre.  It was so good to connect with them.  The made us a fabulous supper of steak and scallops and Bill had made his favourite dessert, his mom's or grandmother's Blueberry Buckle.  It was quite good.  St. Stephen is the home of Ganong Chocolates.  Yum!  And also a Theological College St. Andrews University.

Chris and Bill---we should have done a new group selfie picture!!

During our talks, Al told them how we met the owner of The Gables.  Ted and Bill happen to play hockey together!  Small world.

Tomorrow we start home.  Edmunston, Levis Quebec, then a town just inside Ontario, Brighton, Ontario then home.  We have had a great trip so far.  3 days of rain.  3 days of fog.  The rest of the days have been just right!!

Our last day in Saint John, I met Carolyn Campbell and Kathy Bawn for supper near the campground at a place called Lily's.  The food was quite good and the profits goes into children's programs.  The visit was awesome!  I worked with these 2 ladies at the CNSC!  Great to connect again girls!

Fog, Fog and more Fog

We arrived in foggy Saint John on Sunday afternoon.  Set up camp at Rockwood Park

rockwoodparkcampground.com

It is basically a parking lot, but does the job.  Park and go tour!

Since not a lot is open on Sundays downtown Saint John our touring was relatively quick.  I am so happy we have a  navigation system in the truck as the roads go this way and that way.  A very confusing city to get into from the campground.

We did find the New Brunswick Museum open.  It is a beautifully done museum with a good flow of direction.  We enjoyed the shipbuilding industry displays and the whale displays.  There is a model of a huge whale there that was named Delilah!  WOW  Of course,  I had to take a picture of it for our Delilah!

We did go back into the city core on the 20th to tour the Market which was cool.  Perhaps as big as the London Market in Ontario.  We had a good lunch.  Chris and Bill Hayre suggested we try Donair and Shawarma food if we had a chance.  We found a Shawarma Hut at the market!  I had the Chicken Shawarma in a pita and Al had the Donair in a pita.  It was very good and very filling!!  Throughout the market they had Canada 150 artwork done by students.......I have included a picture!!

There were a couple of booths of artists there too.  One was photography and the other was a watercolour artist.  I enjoyed looking at their prints.  

stjohncitymarket.ca

Could I have this Dance.

Could I have this Dance, a song by Anne Murray was our first dance song at our Wedding.  It might have been the first dance for a lot of people in the early eighties!

From Baddeck NS we travelled to Amherst NS.  Along the way is Springhill, NS, home of Anne Murray.  They opened the Anne Murray Centre in 1989.  The Centre houses all of her awards and memorabillia from her birth to her retirement.  A beautiful singer who received quite a few awards.

Here are some pictures from the Centre

annemurraycentre.com

After our tour, we carried up highway 2, too Loch Lomond campground.  We did stay here this past Sunday.  Good campground, right off the Trans Canada.  Not too far from fuel, eats and grocery stores.  We set up then went to pick up some more groceries.  Diesel was .94 Cents per litre.  Hauling the trailer we need it as cheap as possible!!  :)  

Tomorrow:  Saint John

Glace Bay Nova Scotia

Glace Bay Coal Mine

www.minersmuseum.com

We didn't know a whole lot about coal mining and were fortunate enough to go to the museum in Glace Bay and take a tour.  We had an excellent tour guide Sheldon.  He had retired from the mine after 32 years.  His father and grandfather both had worked at the mine.  We had a good group with us, including a high school class---they were given a questionnaire from their teacher afterwards and scurried to find the answers.

Working in the mine was hard work, dirty work, and the pay was horrible!  The Company owned the mine and everything in the early beginnings.  By everything, they owned your home, the owned the equipment that you needed to purchase from them to work in the mine, they owned you.  Have a look at this picture and you will see what I mean.

Our tour lasted an hour.  We walked about a quarter of a mile into the mine.  Some of where we walked was only 4 and a half feet in height.  We were given hard hats and a shawl type cape to put over us to protect our clothing.  Every once in awhile as we were walking, you could hear a hard hat hit the metal bars.  Yup, even mine, one time.  I won't say anymore other than if you get a chance to go you should.

We actually met 3 former miners.  They are proud of what they did.  Very hard work.  One miner's brother is in Cambridge, ONT running for Council I believe.  We did not get to hear Men of the Deep sing---missed the concert season as it starts more in July.

After we were done our tour, we walked about all the exhibits.  We were the last to leave that area.  Both Al and I found it quite interesting.

Lunch was at the Miners Restaurant.  It was quite good.  

After Glace Bay we went downtown Sydney and did a walking tour.  When we first got there, there were all these people heading for the grass area at the Visitor's Centre.  We then realized that they were forming 150 and having a picture taken with a drone.  They all had on red shirts and some had little flags.  Neat idea.

We picked up a couple of souvenirs at The Curiosity Shop and The Best of the Clan shop.  Time to go back to camp.  It was about an hours drive.

Friday, June 16 was our quiet day.  Did some laundry at the Baddeck Campground (which is recommended).  Al went out to the Baddeck Golf Course and played the 9.  It was time to get the camper cleaned up so we could head out for Amherst the next day.

June 14 towards Sydney NS

Up early and off to the other side of the island.  Fort Louisburg!

As we were entering the Fort I texted Shelley to see if we should be on the look out for them.  They were about 10 minutes behind us.  We met up and did the guided tour with them.  Our tour guide, a passionate lady by the name of Hilda.  She toured us around the perimeter of the town within the Fort.

After the guided tour, we went on our own touring wherever we wanted.  Al and I went into the Inn for a bit of a snack.  We had some Vegetable soup which was very good and it was served with bread and butter.  The bread was made at the bakery on site.  Remember, once you entered the town, you were in the 1700s.  After we ate, we went to the bakery---where they made the bread and baked it as if you were in the 1700s as well.  The bread of the day was the Medium bread.  It is very dense and you would have to acquire a taste for it.  We learnt the day they make the white bread everyone buys it up.

If you are going to tour the Fort dress for the wind!

After we left the Fort we went to Napoli's pizza, on the recommendation of Ashley Armstrong.  Oh my it was so very good!  I told her she should open up a Pizza place at home!!

Since our tour of the Fort took longer than what we thought, we decided not to do the Coal Miner museum today.  Instead we travelled to Rita MacNeil's Tea Room.

It is a beautiful former 1 room schoolhouse that Rita bought I think in the 80s.  She added on and lived there herself.  Most, if not all of Rita's awards are on the walls there.  You can have a breakfast and lunch there if you like.  We had dessert.  All the food is made on site and I must say it was very very good.

Tomorrow the Coal Miner's Museum in Glaces Bay.

June 13th ---- Alexander Graham Bell Museum

Today we decided to have a quiet day, instead of driving for miles, we went into Baddeck and toured the Alexander Graham Bell museum.  This museum is more than the telephone, it is about teaching the deaf, kites, planes, hydrofoils, metal detectors, and more.  He held many different patents and reminds me of Thomas Edison.  Bell was not a very good student but a very good student of science.  Bell married one of his deaf students, Mabel.  Mabel was gifted, by Bell, the majority of the stocks of the telephone.

Bell's home in Beinn Breagh, Nova Scotia stands empty today.  This is where he is buried.  The house can only be reached by boat.

We spent quite a bit of time at the museum as there is a lot to see.  As we were leaving, we heard someone say---Anyone here from Ripley??  Ha, Todd and Shelley McGlynn!  We knew they were to be in Nova Scotia but we didn't think our schedules matched up!  We met for lunch later.

After lunch, we asked the Tourist Info is there was anything else that we should see within close area of Baddeck.  The suggested taking a hike to Usiga Falls (meaning white water)  It was only a 4K hike and I decided that it wouldn't hurt to go---stupid bursitis.......   Very beautiful hike and well worth going the whole distance to see the White Falls.

Ahhh, time to end the day and turn in!  Fort Louisburg and the Coal mine on the schedule for tomorrow.

Baddeck, NS

Finally we have made it to Baddeck Campsite.  We will be here for 6 days, leaving Saturday for Tuoro, NS.  

We went into the little town of Baddeck, NS---home of Alexander Graham Bell.  The town is that little, a few shops, post office, fuel and of course, Tim Hortons.  I have been on a Tim's diet lately so that was a nice treat.

On Monday, we toured the Cabot Trail.  On a recommendation of another Ontario camper, we decided to go counter clockwise driving on the trail.  Their reasoning was, most of the scenic stops were on the right side then.  Makes sense---easy on, easy off.

The roads were crappy.  Bumpy!  I guess it is hard to work on them, having to close down 1 side at a time.  We did go through some construction tho -- they seem to be either repairing bridges, or constructing new ones.

The scenery was amazing.  The trail is up and down and has quite the switch back curves.  We had to get out at 1 scenic stop so I could get some fresh air.  It is like the Smokey Mtn. roads--hairpin curves, hills etc.  We stopped at a few of these places.

Making longer stops along the way.  One was for lunch at the MountainView Cafe.  Good food.  From there, we carried on to the Glenora Distillery.  The tour was about 30 minutes long.  All 3 couples were from on Ontario---go figure.  After that we travelled down to Mahou, to The Red Shoe Pub.  This pub is owned by the Rankin Sisters.  We were entertained by Lisa Cameron (also a Grade 6 teacher) during our supper.  

Below you will see some pictures of the day!!!